Six Fields of Contact (1st)

One who does not understand the six senses’ origin, ending, gratification, drawback, and escape is no true mendicant. A mendicant speaks up, saying that he does not truly understand these things, so the Buddha teaches him further.

2 English translations by

10 translations
in other modern languages

1 edition of the root text

1 parallel
in ancient texts

Linked Discourses 35

7. With Migajāla

71. Six Fields of Contact (1st)

“Mendicants, anyone who doesn’t truly understand the six fields of contacts’ origin, ending, gratification, drawback, and escape has not completed the spiritual journey and is far from this teaching and training.”

When he said this, one of the mendicants said to the Buddha: “Here, sir, I’m lost. For I don’t truly understand the six fields of contacts’ origin, ending, gratification, drawback, and escape.”

“What do you think, mendicant? Do you regard the eye like this: ‘This is mine, I am this, this is my self’?”

“No, sir.”

“Good, mendicant! And regarding the eye, you will truly see clearly with right wisdom that: ‘This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self.’ Just this is the end of suffering. Do you regard the ear … nose … tongue … body …

Do you regard the mind like this: ‘This is mine, I am this, this is my self’?”

“No, sir.”

“Good, mendicant! And regarding the mind, you will truly see clearly with right wisdom that: ‘This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self.’ Just this is the end of suffering.”

Activate Chinese word lookup

This enables word lookup for ancient Chinese texts. Word meanings are from the Digital Dictionary of Buddhism.

Lookup

None
汉语 → English

Change the script of the Pali text

This enables you to read the Pali text in various scripts.

Script

Latin
සිංහල
नागरी
ไทย
မြန်မာဘာသာ

Remember settings

Select this to remember these settings next time you visit SuttaCentral.

Publication details

Translated for SuttaCentral by Bhikkhu Sujato, 2018. Dedicated to the public domain via Creative Commons Zero (CC0). You are encouraged to copy, reproduce, adapt, alter, or otherwise make use of this translation in any way you wish. Attribution is appreciated but not legally required.